I'm just a 15 year old high school student in the Philadelphia suburbs with a love for food. I have an apprenticeship at Lacroix at the Rittenhouse, and will be writing about my experiences there, as well as anything else that strikes my palate.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Main Line Prime comes through again

Today my mom unsuspectingly stopped by Main Line Prime while I was at school and picked up a few dry-aged prime ribeyes. She had no idea why they were so expensive. She had had no idea what dry-aged meant, and maybe you don't either, so listen up.

If you or your significant other is a steak buff, you may have jumped out of your seat when you saw the price of a dry-aged steak on your favorite steakhouse menu. Dry-aged beef is rarely found in grocery stores and is absent on the menus of all but the most fancy restaurants and steakhouses. Essentially, it is meat that has been hung to dry for a certain amount of time. During the drying period, a certain amount of the meat's water evaporates, concentrating and intensifying the meat flavor. In addition, enzymes, only activated at higher temperatures (warmer than your fridge) work to break down tissue, making the meat more tender. Unfortunately, the meat loses a lot of mass from evaporation during this process, so your 10 oz dry-aged ribeye may have originally been a few ounces heavier. This, and the practice of dry-aging meat in general, justify the all the dough you'll be spending on this meat.